WEH delays IPO until 2017

Wind Energy Holding (WEH), one of the largest wind power operators in Southeast Asia, has delayed its listing plan to 2017 as it needs to overhaul the company structure.

Earlier, it was scheduled to submit the first filing to the Office of Securities and Exchange Commission in the first quarter of this year. However, the schedule has been postponed after KPN Group acquired the majority stake from former chairman Nopporn Suppipat.

“KPN would like to reorganize the company’s structure and set up a new internal management system before launching an initial public offering (IPO). Therefore, it needs to call off the IPO for a year,” a source close to the company told this portal.

Meanwhile, KPN Group has also acquired the entire stakes in Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), which is another major shareholder of WEH, and renamed to KPN Energy Co.

To date, REC is the only one to have successfully built and operated two commercial-scale wind farms in the country with a combined capacity of 207 megawatts, located in Nakon Ratchasima.

WEH expects to raise around 8-10 billion baht through IPO. Meanwhile, DEMCO, which holds 4 per cent in WEH, previously planned to exit WEH via the IPO. However, DEALSTREETASIA could not contact Pongsak Siricupta, managing director of DEMCO, for a comment on the delayed listing plan.

So far, WEH has five wind energy investment projects in the pipeline. A combined capacity of five projects is 420 megawatts, requiring total investment of around 30 billion. It will use the IPO proceeds and loans to fund the projects.